Advantages: Wonderful animation, legendary status, remarkable freshness Disadvantages: Character development, a bit confusing, lots of violence, somehow disappointing
/music video of some kind by Geinoh Yamashiro Gumi who performed the film's score. The final extras included contain interviews with the restoration team, a gallery of some 4500 stills (whow!), a glossary of Akira tidbits (whow! again apparently there's quite a lot of them) and a collection of trailers. All in all, the Special Edition seems to contain a lot of interesting material, which would be interesting to see (and if the opportunity arises it is definitely something I'd like to get familiar with despite what I think of the film).
OVERALL
In the end, I wasn't wowed by Akira. It is definitely a well made film and the animation is absolutely top notch, but even after many viewings it still feels a little alien to me. Maybe it's the characters who don't inspire enough, or the extreme violence, or the straight-forward story that gets too ...
Advantages: Unusual, Japanese, funky Disadvantages: Hard to get into, hard to get hold of too.
Anyone in the West who has heard of Akira has probably just heard of (or seen) the Manga animation, but the roots of that were in the long running japanese comic of the same name. Like so many comicbooks, there is a BIG backstory, and if you want to get into Akira, then your best bet is to hunt down a local comicbook store (or trawl the net for your nearest mail order stockist) and catch up by reading the trade paperbacks (collected editions of comics as big paperbacks).
Akira is definative Manga, the strip has that slightly deformed look of most japanese art, big eyes and heads, action sweeps and unusual expletives, but Akira does it all VERY well. I think the artist was called Katsuhiro Otomo, but I have hunted my attic and can't find the original comics.
This op is based on my memories of reading the comics a few years ago, so ...
Advantages: Two 'versions' of a popular anime, relatively cheap Disadvantages: Dated and overly extravagant
For years you hear about the legend. People tell you that it is the most groundbreaking film ever made, let alone anime. You're informed that you simply must see it before you die and, if you die, that you really should make an effort to see it anyway.
I picked up Akira for £20 in HMV after just a scant two years of being interested in anime. I had heard all of the above and thought to myself "Right, better check this out then! Sod the price, it's supposed to be awesome!"
I want to take this opportunity to say that in no way do I actually dislike the film; I loved it in fact. But years of hype had raised my expectations far, far too high.
Akira is the no-nonsense tale of psychic potential in uncontrolled individuals, and the film doesn't pull any punches; opening up with Tokyo in 1988 just as a gigantic explosion rips it apart ...
